Debate
Debate Read the article summarising the information about B.B. =Ben Bernanke: The Controversial Chairman of the Federal Reserve= Why was Bernanke Named Time Magazine's Person of the Year? By Rosemary Peavler, About.com Guide Ben Bernanke fschlosser Sponsored Links Right after Ben Bernanke was named Time's Person of the Year for 2009, he was up for confirmation hearings for a new four-year term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The confirmation hearings were contentious. Many didn't want Bernanke to serve another term. Some blamed him for the Wall Street meltdown in the fall of 2008. Some blamed him for not seeing the Great Recession coming. Some even went so far as to think he was in on the whole thing with the investment bankers on Wall Street. Perhaps some of the controversy surrounding Ben Bernanke comes from a lack of understanding concerning what the Federal Reserve actually does and what it is supposed to do. Somewhere, in the confusion of the financial regulatory mishaps of the past two years, we had to charge someone with being asleep at the switch. The collapse of our biggest financial institutions was so dramatic and, seemingly, sudden that we find it hard to believe that the powers that be didn't see it coming, particularly the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. How Time Chooses Their Person of the Year Even those that gave Bernanke the benefit of the doubt or those who credited him with saving the country from a true depression thought him a strange choice as Time's Person of the Year. After all, others were in the running. Others who might have been more deserving given the controversy surrounding Bernanke. But, Time magazine has a long and storied history of not just naming the "good guys" as their people of the year. After all, Joseph Stalin, a cruel Russian dictator, and the Ayatollah Khomeini, who overthrew the Shah of Iran in a bloody revolution, have been part of that group. That is not to say Bernanke is not one of the good guys. But, Time names all types. Their goal is to name a person or persons who, in their opinion, has had the most impact, positive or negative, during the year. The Structure and Functions of the Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve (Fed) has been a particularly visible body for some 30 years now with its hand on the wheel of monetary policy. It controls our interest rates, our money supply, our credit markets, and serves as a financial regulator of some, but not all, banks. But, even though the Federal Reserve has been more visible in recent years, it was created long ago by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Before that time, there had been some severe financial crisis's and bank panics in the U.S. and the Federal Reserve was created to insure the stability of the banking system. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created the Fed as an independent body operating within the U.S. government. The Fed has been accused of secrecy when, in reality, it doesn't have to disclose its actions to the President or the Congress. It is part of the system of financial checks and balances within our federal government. It is supposed to be a non-political body to the extent possible with the governors of the Fed serving long and staggered terms that cross Presidential terms. Congress does have oversight authority with regard to the Fed. One of the key functions of the Fed is to make sure that the banks in our financial system are liquid. The Fed has the legitimate power to act as a lender of last resort. In other words, the Fed has the power to extend credit to financial institutions in case of emergency. Not only does it have the power to take this action, it actually has responsibility since it is charged with maintaining the stability and integrity of our financial system. Some seem to think that Bernanke took it upon himself to infuse the large banks and bank holding companies with money to keep them from collapsing in the fall of 2008. In actuality, it was his responsibility to take some sort of action to maintain the liquidity of our financial system. Why is Ben Bernanke so Controversial? Another one of the responsibilities of the Fed is to prevent asset bubbles. One of the factors that precipitated the recession was the bubble in the housing market which led to inflated housing values. You can go back to 2000 and find the dot.com technology bubble. At that time, Alan Greenspan was the Chairman of the Fed and he was not able to prevent that collapse either. The Fed has not been very effective at the task of preventing asset bubbles. Very shortly before the collapse of the banks on Wall Street in 2008, Bernanke made the statement that the sub-prime lending crisis could be contained and that the underlying fundamentals of the economy were strong. He was proven wrong in short order. The Lack of Financial Regulation If blame is to be placed somewhere for the Great Recession, perhaps it should be placed at the feet of the easing of financial regulation rather than on an individual person. The Glass-Steagall Act, which required that the functions of commercial banks and investment banks be separated, was repealed in 1999. Simply put, banks that accepted customer deposits and made loans could then also sell stocks and conduct all the functions of underwriting. Many think that this led to increased risk-taking and speculation by commercial banks. If the fact that many of the "too big to fail" banks engaged in investing in exotic financial instruments rather than in solid, low risk investments, perhaps this is true. The Key Questions The key questions concerning Ben Bernanke are simply why didn't he see the dangers in the sub-prime lending crisis and in the housing bubble? Even the average American citizen knew housing prices were too high and that banks lending 125% of home equity seemed dangerous. When the confirmation of Ben Bernanke gets to the floor of the Senate, he may get confirmed but with more "no" votes than any Federal Reserve Chairman in the past. Instead of placing the blame where it lies, on the big banks who decided to gamble instead of protecting the public's money, many Senators seem determined to place the blame on Bernanke who simply did his job as the economy melted down before his eyes. ' A List of Vocabulary' Instructions to the debate Debate Hold a studio debate: Сonduct the debate on the topic “Ben Bernanke is the controversial Chairman of the Fed” based on the article “Anatomy of a Meltdown”, the video “The Chairman” + 2 additional articles “'Ben Bernanke: The Controversial Chairman of the Federal ' ' Reserve” ('you`ll find it in the Project`s materials). The participants of the debate are: 1) Chairperson –to introduce the topic, outline some important facts/events linked to the person under consideration, conduct a smooth ball rolling engaging all the participants in this kind of activity; 2)'' Other Participants are divided into two teams: one team dispute Bernanke`s achievements, the other –are opponents of his policy focusing on B`s blunders & failures. All the participants should talk the talk (speak fluently & convincingly), be competent, draw on the key terms & collocations (no less than 10 terms). The participants take a full & active role in the debate, interact & cooperate with each other & with the host in a friendly way. Express your position, develop & comment on it, support, contradict, parry other participants` arguments & charges. Don`t dominate the discussion. Polite interruption is perfectly acceptable. '''Time limit – 25 minutes.' Your performance will be assessed on the basis of: · competence, confidence, fluency, contribution · lexical resource · grammar & pronunciation accuracy Conducting Debate The chairperson opens the debate by introducing and summarizing the moot (the topic to be debated). Then the affirmative team present their arguments, followed by a member of the negative team. This pattern is repeated for the second and the third speakers in each team. Finally, each team gets an opportunity for rebutting the arguments of the opponent. Speakers should speak clearly, audibly to an audience using some appropriate eye contact, variation of voice and body language. Speakers should find specific, relevant examples, statistics and evidence to support a given case. They should incorporate this information into their speech as part of a debate in a relevant and appropriate way, use a range of speaking skills to present a case during a debate. They should do so in an appropriate manner, demonstrating an understanding of the rules of formal debate. The sequence for debate is as follows: · A 2- minute constructive speech from each speaker of both teams. (the second and the third speakers of both sides presenting further arguments, identifying further areas of conflict should answer the questions that may have been raised by the previous affirmative/negative speakers). · A 3-minute recess to prepare for rebuttals · 5-minute rebuttals from each side turn by turn. (At this stage you may either incorporate your questions in your speech during the first round or frame clear-cut counter arguments at the very beginning of the rebuttal stage) · A 3-minute concluding speech from each side · Questions from the audience (the audience can address questions to both sides after the debate. · The chairperson`s conclusive statements. NOTE: 'While referring to peers` or competitors` words/thoughts/ideas try to forget the ' '''verbs "say" & "tell". Instead use the following: ' '''assert state admit explain mention point out prove '' reply assure convince inform notify remind warn promise claim argue confirm that attack raise the question dwell upon emphasize that stress the importance add 'retort (резко возражать) deny Signposting May I begin by filling you in on the…/making a few observations about the events leading to that collapse/giving you an overview of/ bringing you up- to-date on … Then I `ll go on to highlight/throw some light on/talk you through/discuss in more depth/state I look at it this way The first thing I should say is/concerns… It has often been said that… You may be temped at first to suppose that… I put it to you (=suggest) In the course of his speech Mr Y mentioned/referred to… In his very able speech Mr X quoted statistics about.. First of all I`d like to explain Secondly } Let`s consider Lastly I must add that Last but not least Let`s not forget I now want to draw your attention to another fact On the other hand, some of us feel very strongly about… To begin with, I................... In the first line, I............. ' Other useful phrases for debates' ' - What can you say instead of "I think" ' I would say/think § In my opinion § To my mind § I am of the opinion that § I hold the opinion that § I suppose/assume/feel '- When you want to stress your "personal opinion":' § Personally I think § As far as I am concerned § As for me § As I take it § As far as I can see '- When you "agree" or when you "don't agree":' § I entirely/quite agree with you. § I agree to (with) her plan. § I am of the same opinion. § I should like to take up the argument of § I must contradict the ridiculous arguments of the previous speaker § I differ from/with you entirely. § I disagree with you: I am sure you're mistaken. § I stick to my opinion. § Let's agree to differ! '- When you want to say the "opposite" of what someone else 'said: § on the contrary! quite the contrary! just the opposite! § That is the very opposite of what I said. § That is quite the contrary to what I said. § I maintain the contrary. § In contrast to what you said, I maintain that........... '- When you are "quite sure" of something:' § of course! § That goes without saying (It goes without saying that......) § I contend/maintain that................ § It's my conviction that.................. ' - When you want to "ask a question":' § May I interrupt you? § There arises the question/point whether/if...... § This question raises the whole issue '- When you "haven't understood":' § I beg your pardon. / Pardon? § Could you repeat what you've just said? But slower, please./ § Could you slow down a bit? ' ''- If you should want to "correct a mistake":' § Excuse me (for interrupting) you should have said:"....." '- When you want to "distinguish" (make a distinction between) 'two aspects of a question, when you want to distinguish one aspect from the other: § on the one hand; on the other hand § in general; in particular § generally speaking § on the whole § taken as a whole § at first sight; on second thoughts '- When you want to "add" something:' § In addition,......................... § Moreover,.................... § Furthermore,........................ § Finally, § On top of that........................... - When you want to "emphasize" something: § I would like to lay (put) emphasis (stress) on the fact that.. § I just want to point out that................ '- When you want to "say the truth":' § To be frank (with you),................... § Frankly (speaking),......................... § To tell the truth, § To be perfectly frank,........................ § And if you are "not sure": § I don't know exactly. § I don't know for certain. '- General phrases:' § in other words; in this respect § to a certain degree/extent; It depends on your point of view in brief/short.......... view; in a nutshell To be brief,.................. To cut a long story short,...... Let me put it this way:.... § I don't know. - I don't know either. Nor/Neither do I. Possible conclusions § To conclude, we must emphasise our motion of…., hence the opposition’s point of view can no longer be supported. § To sum up, our motion must stand, simply because during the debate we have shown…. § This debate has made obvious that the opposition’s motion cannot stand since….. § The simple truth is… § The proposed arguments lead us to the irrefutable conclusion that… § To draw a line under this debate, … § After careful consideration, we must conclude that…